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POPULAR INSTRUCTION, 



,' Its Relation to the Higher Institutions of Learning. 



DISCOURSE, 



BY WORTHINGTON SMITH, D. »,, 



PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 



IN ST, ALBANS, VT. 



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ST. ALBANS, VT..* 

PRINTED BY E. B. WHITING 

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POPULAR INSTRUCTION, 

AND 

Its Relation to tlie Higher Institutions of learning. 



DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED ON THANKSGIVING-DAY, 
NOVEMBER 26th, 1845, 

BY WORTHINGTON SMITH, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IK 
ST. ALBANS, VT, 



ST. ALBANS, VT.: 

P R t N'T E D' fi*y * E. B. W H I TT N Sv 

1846. 



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Ss. Albans, Nov. 28th, 1846; 
Rev, Dr. W. Smith :— 

Dear Sir, — Believing that your Sermon on Popular Education^ 
delivered at the Congregational Meeting House in St. Albans on the late 
Thanksgiving Anniversary, if circulated in a printed form, will greatly 
tend to promote the cause of education, we respectfully request you to> 
furnish us with a copy for the press. 

With high respect and esteem, your friends, &c.,. 
Bsnjamin Swift, 
William Farrar, 
J. L. Chandler, 
George F.Houghton, 
J. Smith, 

J. Gregory Smith, 
W. O. Gadcomb, 
L. Brainerd, 
E. B. Whiting. ] 

To the Hon. Benjamin Swift and othees: — 

Gentlemen, — The Discourse, a copy of which you have politely 
asked for the press, was hastily run off, with no object in view ulterior 
to the occasion on which it was delivered ; of course it can make but 
slight pretensions to literary merit. At the same time, if, as you are 
pleased to intimate, a more extensive diffusion of the thoughts it compri- 
ses may contribute, though in a humble degree, in aid of important; 
interests now before the Public, I do not feel at liberty to decline your 
request. In committing the Di=course to your disposal, it is proper to 
say, that in addition to some slight changes in phraseology I have inserted 
a few sentences for a more full elucidation of one or two points; and 
suppressed the closing address, as unimportant to the main discussion. 

Yours, respectfully and truly, 

W- "Smith. 

St. Albans, Dec. 3d, 1846. 



DISCOURSE. 



And, moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught ths 
'people knowledge. — .Ecclesiastes 12 : 9th. 

Two ideas are naturally drawn from these words; first, it is 
desirable that Knowledge should be diffused among the People | 
and. secondly, that educated and learned men are required to 
perform this office. 

The word, Preacher, as used in this Book, is not limited to the 
narrow, technical sense in which it is employed at the present 
day. It denotes one who imparts sound and wholesome instruc- 
tion to the People ; and it will hardly be pretended that this is the 
characteristic of all who bear this title in modern times. More- 
over, it is applied to one whose topics for instruction are not 
strictly confined to the doctrines and precepts of Religion; but 
who expatiates freely in the broad field of -human as well as 
divine knowledge ; embracing matters that are Prudential and 
Economical, no less than such as are Moral and Spiritual ; and 
■discoursing on all themes that pertain to the duties and interests 
•of life. He dispenses all kinds of Knowledge which it is desirable 
to have imparted; and diffuses it freely and copiously for the 
benefit of the People. And this he does, it should be noticed, not 
because he is a Preacher simply — as though the diffusion of 
Knowledge was necessarily incident to the office — but, because he 
is wise — learned and experienced — and therefore competent to 
-instruct men, 'Moreover, because he was wise, the Preacher 
still taught the people knowledge.' 

\ That it is desirable to have Knowledge diffused among the 
People, is a proposition, the truth of which may appear too obvi- 
ous, to need the authority of Revelation or an elaborate argument 
from reason to support it. Knowledge and mind are correlative 
tqrms ; each existing for the other; and neither capable of man- 
ifestation by itself. If, then, the People are endowed with mind* 



4 

Shey have an inalienable right to that, without which, mind can 
possess no appreciable value. Whatever exists has a right to 
■sustenance — the means of its life, and growth, and perfection. — 
Mind has this right to Knowledge — ite natural aliment; the con- 
dition of its developsment. the food by which ft is nourished and 
'groweth up.' No argument can justify ihe withholding of the 
means of Knowledge from human minds, or intercepting its free 
progress among all the People ; that would not sanction bare-faced 
oppression, and the most flagrant robbery. He. who made the 
mind, has bequeathed to it the inheritance of Knowledge ; and 
to debar it from, this, its rightful domain, would be an outrage 
hardly surpassed by him, who should attempt to exclude the 
People from their common patrimony — the use of light, and air, 
and water. 

Again; that it is desirable to have Knowledge diffused among 
the People, is obvious from its tendency to augment the strength 
and efficiency of man. The saying of Lord Bacon, that ' Knowl- 
edge is power,' has long since been adopted as a maxim among 
men. By what means is it, that man has come to be acknowledged 
as lord of the brute creation ? Not, surely, because he has more 
power and activity of muscle than any of the beasts of the field ; 
or can encounter his antagonist with more determined resolution, 
or with a fiercer onset than the tiger or the lion. Whence is it, 
that he masters the elements of nature ; disarms them of their 
hurtful power; and even compels them into his service 2 The 
massive forests are overturned by his hand ; mountains and rocks 
©re rent in pieces; the stubborn earth is made pliable under his 
feet, and forced to yield him sustenance; oceans and sens, as well 
as rivers and streams, acknowledge his dominion ; the thunder- 
bolt is taught to avoid him, and the winds to execute his com- 
mands. These are but the manifestations of the power of Knowl- 
edge ; the triumph of cultivated Intellect over matter — of Reason 
over brute force. 

To mind belongs the gift of searching into all things, 'even 
the deep things of -God ;' of ascertaining the laws by which 
Nature performs all her operations, and of calculating the force 
required to overcome her resistance to his purposes. By that 
tkill which he acquires from experience and studious observation, 
man learns to control one set of forces by another; to apply the 
•activities of Nature to subdue the resistance which she herself 
•fcraates ; and thus, by a dextrous management of her own laws. 



he brings the vast and varied powers of the animal and materia! 
world into subjection to his own will. All the mechanic arts ; 
the skill of the husbandman in tempering and fertilizing the soils 
of the earth ; and of the herdsman in subduing and training to 
his own use the beasts of the field : nay, the control which the 
Orator, the Legislator, and the Military Chieftain exercise over 
the passions, the will, and the conduct of mf.n — are but manifesta- 
tions of that" power which Knowledge imparts to our race; a 
race, which, without it, must long since have been extinguished. 
And who would advocate a restriction on this power of man ? — 
Who would confine its advantages to the few, by whom it might 
be employed to the injury if not the destruction of the many ? — ■ 
Nay, who but an adversary of his race, would deny it free course, 
or refuse to aid its circulation with all possible facilities, till it was 
distributed in full measures among all the people! 

Moreover, Knowledge is an accession to the means of human 
enjoyment. Indeed, in the absence of it, man can never rise 
above the level of the brute, nor his enjoyments be other than 
beastly. All that is entitled to the distinction of pure, refined, 
manly, has its seat in the mind; and is among the fruits of intel- 
lectual culture. So far, then, as the People are bereft of Knowl- 
edge, they approximate to the susceptibilities and condition ofthe 
brute orders ; and become assimilated to them in their habits and 
pleasures. 

It is among the necessary conditions of Knowledge, that the 
capacity of the mind be enlarged, and its powers developed and 
cultivated. Unlike a material vessel, whose capacity may be 
filled without being enlarged, the mind — for the popular view at 
which I now aim — may be regarded as a merely latent power, a 
vital susceptibility, which needs to be touched by the finger of 
Knowledge to awaken it to a state of action and self-conscious- 
ness ; an instrument whose many chords require to be tuned, 
and made to vibrate by some external force, before it will utter 
the music of which it is capable. 

The capacity of mind is its power of Knowledge — its facility 
of apprehending and accumulating thought. This is the result 
of exercise; and exercise is stimulated by that thirst for knowing, 
which Knowledge itself creates. The reception of one idea 
expands the mind for the reception of another; puts it in tune to 
desire another, and gives it skill to acquire it. Thus the process 
begins, and after the same law it progresses; each accumulation 



prepares a place and imparls a skill for acquiring another — capac- 
ity and culture increasing with the augmentation of intellectual 
stores — until a great and fair edifice, enriched with imperishable 
wealth, is presented to the eye. 

Now the healthful action of every organ In the human system 
is a source of pleasure ; and the pleasure resulting from one organ 
is superior io that of another, probably, as the former exceeds the 
latter in the complexity or delicacy of its structure. Hence the 
surpassing advantage which the intellectual organization pos- 
sesses over the physical — the miiul over the body. Knowledge 
imparts enjoyment to the mind in two ways — in the pursuit of it, 
and in the possession of it. The very process of accumulating 
affords a pleasurable action to the mind ; and the joy is perfected 
in the contemplation of the conflict when it is past, and of the 
treasure with which the victory is rewarded. Mind, properly 
chastened and directed ; accustomed to look before and after, as 
well as on things present; with stores of knowledge to revolve, 
and out of which, as materials, to accumulate continually and 
without end — is a solace too needful in this toilsome and weary 
life to be withheld from the People. 

Once more; Knowledge enhances a man's self-respect, and in- 
clines, as well as qualifies him, to sustain with honor and fidelity 
the relations and duties of life. The difference between the civ- 
ilized and the barbarous.- the freeman and the serf, is mainly that, 
which Knowledge creates. With the one are found the sciences - 
and the arts, and that culture and discipline which are at once 
the condition and the fruits of this inheritance; and with the 
other is ignorance, and the mental feebleness and stupidity which 
•are the attendants and results cf ignorance. Among the former 
we discover that high sense of honor and self-respect, which 
serves as a salutary check on the low and base tendencies of 
human nature, and a firm support of the order, tranquility, and 
various proprieties of social life; that spirit of enterprise, which 
secures continued progress in all useful inventions and improve- 
ments; and that habit of benevolence, which prompts to the 
diffusion of blessings among their fellow-men. Among the latter, 
we detect the predominance of the beastly over the rational na- 
ture of man, an unchecked tendency to deteriorate and decline) 
rather than to improve and multiply; the prevalence of low and 
malignant passions, of disorder, treachery, and violence'— each 
generation becoming worse than its predecessor— and the race, 



as the savage beasts around them have already done, fast forfeit- 
ing its title to a habitation on the earth. 

But enough has been said — not to establish a fact, which, it is 
believed, few will be fbund to deny — but. to illustrate the grounds 
on which it is desirable, as implied in the test, that the People, 
and all the People, be taught Knowledge. 

We proceed, in the second place, to consider what is requisite 
m order that the People be taught? The answer to tins inquiry, 
from the mouth of every one, will doubtless be — ' Schools must. 
be established among the People, and the whole generation of 
children and youth gathered into them ; and the spirit of learning 
and intellectual improvement awakened throughout the commu- 
nity.' This, no doubt, in part, is the true answer to the inquiry. 
The means of knowledge must be provided — provided at the 
eommon expense, and unceasingly provided, (for the Preacher 
k still taught,' i. e. evermore taught.) or the People will not be in- 
structed. And that school houses are now sprinkled over our 
State, and liberal, public provision made for the education of all 
the children of the State, is a blessing, for which high honor is 
due to the forecast and patriotism of the Founders of the Republic; 
and reverent praise to the Supreme Author of all good things. — 
Scarcely less honor, moreover^ is due to those liberal and enlight- 
ened minds among us, by whose exertions the Common School 
Law has been recently revised; and who, thereby, have laid the 
School System open to inspection,awakened into life new chords of 
sympathy between it and the Public mind, and made it accessible 
to those strong and healthful influences, which are accelerating 
the progress of almost every valuable enterprise in society. On 
my mind there rests not the shadow of a doubt, that more has 
been accomplished within the last twelve months, for improving 
and rendering effective the system of popular education in our 
State, than in the twelve years that preceded. Men of intelligence 
and influence throughout the State, who have heretofore proverb- 
ially stood aloof, are now extending to it the aid of their favor 
and counsels; the mass of the People are awakened to honor and 
cherish it as an institution of their own, and that promises the 
richest blessings for their homes and fire-sides ; school-houses of 
a better order are multiplying, and improved text-books and im- 
proved methods of teaching are coming into general use ; a new 
spirit of inquiry, experiment, and emulation, is diffusing itself 
through the corps of teachers in the common, and no less in the 



higher schools ; and a fresh zeal is kindling up in the infant and 
youthful mind. Yes. too much has been accomplished within 
this short period; the spirit for discussion and progress has been 
too thoroughly roused to be struck mute by a blow — too much 
momentum gained to be at once arrested even by the ruthless, 
Vandal hand, which, for a day. might be empowered to expunge 
the records of our Statute-Book. Common Schools have already 
acquired an advantage which they will continue for a time, at 
least, to reap the benefit of, in despite of faction and suicidal 
legislation. 

But, notwithstanding, our text and our reason compel us to say 
concerning the machinery of Common Schools, what has been 
said in regard to the Preacher. It was not because the People 
had a Preacher- that they were taught Knowledge ; but because 
this Preacher was wise. So, too, it is not a matter of course, 
that the rising generation will be properly educated, simply be- 
cause there are schools and teachers provided. The maxim will, 
forever and the world over, prove true, ' That it is because the 
teachers are wise — competent, well qualified — that the People are 
taught Knowledge.' What the mind has not received, it cannot 
be expected to impart. The reservoir must not be made to depend 
on fountains that are lower than itself; neither must we expect 
that well-made scholars will come from the hands of ignorant 
teachers. 

The springs, then, which are to supply the thirst of the People 
after Knowledge, are to be sought in higher altitudes than those 
which the mass of thepeopie occupy. It is not the Preacher with 
his robes, or titles, or authority of office, that is to minister to 
the insatiate demands of immortal minds, and feed them ' with, 
knowledge and understanding ;' but the Preacher with his wisdom 
that is to do this. He himself is first to be qualified, not by super- 
human inspiration, but by years of cloistered toil and discipline, 
under wise masters and amidst the wisdom and learning of past 
times, before he can rightfully aspire to the honorable vocation of 
' teaching the People Knowledge. 7 

And this leads to a consideration of the Higher Institutions of 
Learning — the place they hold in civilized society; their relation 
to the whole process of general education, the diffusion as well 
as preservation of Knowledge ; their indispensable subserviency 
to the most valuable objects of social life ; and the interest which 
the People at large have in their prosperity and success. 



In Ihe absence of Colleges, the People may indeed hav« 
Preachers ; but, as a general remark, they will not be Preachers 
who, 'because they are wise, shall be evermore teaching them 
Knowledge.' Institutions must be created in sufficient numbers 
and at such convenient places in the land, as to accommodate 
all, who, from a native love of learning, or from a laudable desire 
to serve their fellow men, may seek a more liberal education than 
Can be had under private tuition, or at one's own expense. These 
Institutions should be supplied with masters, amply qualified by 
learning and experience in their respective departments, to guide 
and assist the studies of the. youth; and both teachers and pupils 
should have access to such Libraries. Apparatus, and Cabinets, 
as only the munificence of a State, or the generosity of affluent 
citizens, is able to furnish. At such places are the young men of 
every generation to be nurtured in science and learning, who 
' shall be counted worthy' to engage in the high mission of in- 
structing the People. As a general maxim, it will be conceded, 
that the profit to the instructed will be determined by the qualifi- 
cations of the instructor. Other things being equal, he will 
impart the most, who is the best supplied — as a full cistern, even 
from the same orifice, will discharge more water, in a given time, 
than one that is partially replenished. 

Moreover, the inquiry is both pertinent and important — How 
are men, in sufficient numbers for all the purposes of public in- 
struction, to be qualified, without the aid of Colleges and Univer- 
sities ?' The sons of the affluent may indeed be provided with 
private tutors, or sent to foreign institutions ; but as a general 
fact, the youth who are educated for the purpose of serving the 
Public, are not the sons of the rich. There is little hazard in 
saying, that three-fourths of the whole number liberally educated 
in our land for professional purposes, are from families in the 
most ordinary pecuniary circumstances. One-half, or more, are 
compelled by their poverty to depend, more or less, on their own 
exertions for a support. And how are such to hire tutors and 
provide libraries and apparatus ; yea, to create a College, each 
for himself and at his own expense ? It is readily admitted by 
all observing men, that in every age minds have been produced, 
which, by their native force, aided by indefatigable application, 
have surmounted the greatest disadvantages, and attained to 
a high state of usefulness and eminence. But these are rare 
and excepted cases ; and whatever lustre they cast on our com- 
mon nature, they have no appreciable influence on those rules 



10 

which experience has taught us to apply to mankind at large.™ 
Preachers of this class, though ' wise.' are too ' few and far 
between' to serve the needs of a busy and multitudinous People. 
Instruments, for their purposes, must be formed out of the common 
mass ; yea, moreover, they must be forged and polished in ap- 
propriate work-shops, and by the hands of masters. We hold it 
then, as a safe maxim, that in the absence of Public Institutions 
of Learning, there is no chance that the public service will be 
supplied with competent men. 

And here it is proper to observe, that few men consider how 
large is the number, which, in one form and another, are actually 
employed by the People in the way of imparting instruction. In 
this class it is proper to include all who render aid to society 
fry professional counsel and advice, as well as those who are era- 
ployed in the formal business of teaching the young. This class, 
therefore, embraces Lawyers, Physicians, and Clergymen. These 
have always been ranked as belonging to the learned professions ; 
and they are so ranked because their professions have a strictly sci- 
entific basis; and,moreover,to be theoretically as well as practically 
grounded in them, pre-supposes some knowledge of the sciences 
generally, together with an extensive acquaintance with books. 

Now the People of this State, amounting at present to about 
300,000, require, in th.e first place, no less than 3,000 teachers — or 
one to every one hundred souls, to supply their common and select 
schools and Academies. That all these teachers will have en- 
joyed the advantages of a eollege education, is, of course, an 
expectation not to be entertained ; at the same time it is quite 
certain, that the nearer they all approach that standard of qual- 
ifications, which such advantages are likely to secure, the more 
effective service will they render their employers. . Touching 
this point of qualifications, there is one doctrine prevalent, which, 
for the sake of Economy even, it is to be hoped, will ere long be 
exploded — viz.; that indifferent teachers are to be employed for 
the reason that they are cheap. This doctrine is perhaps seldom 
avowed, and yet, in a majority of cases, it may have the force of 
a silent maxim in influencing the contracts with teachers. Hence, 
in these negotiations, the first question appertains to the price, 
and the last to the qualifications. The fallacy of this, as a doc- 
trine of Economy, lies here ; we are required, first, to pay for 
doing up things badly, and in the end, to pay again, for having 
the same things undone. Every thorough teacher in our schools, 
who is at the same time a shrewd observer, well enough under- 



II 

stands, that he is spending as much of the People's money in 
undoing the work of some ignorant or stupid predecessor, as in 
aiding his pupils in the way of direct progress. The true theory 
in this matter, it is believed, was recently started in a small 
district in this vicinity ; and it may be cited as one of the tokens 
of progress, under the auspices of the present School-Law.— 
This district, with a return of only twenty scholars, employs a 
teacher for the ensuing four months at the rate of $70, exclusive 
of board ; being an advance on the average wages paid to teach- 
ers in this county, for the last winter, of seven dollars per month* 
To meet this expenditure, the district submit to a tax -of $2,50 on 
a scholar, after deducting the public appropriation. 

But if our teachers are not themselves to enjoy the advantages 
-of a college education, or its equivalent, they must, at least, be 
qualified by such as have enjoyed them, if they hope to have the 
favor of the public continued to them. The People are fast 
opening their eyes on the delusions, not to say, frauds, connected 
with the School System ; and they will not long suffer themselves 
to be imposed upon by the old artifice, that ' Our teacher ischeap 
as well as incompetent.' That Common Schools are sufficient 
duly to qualify teachers, is an idea that should be regarded as well 
nigh preposterous. These teachers imperiously require that 
system of thorough training which is to be derived from those, 
who have themselves been nurtured in the higher institutions. — 
There is little tendency in the general mind to rise higher than 
it is. only as there are those above it to encourage and aid its 
ascent Common Schools, without Colleges to sustain them, 
must inevitably run themselves out ; yea, and run the age out with 
them, if the age continues to depend on them. Moreover, the 
interests of Common Schools, to say the least, require that one 
district in every town in the State should enjoy the labors of a 
regularly educated teacher, for the benefit of the rest. But even 
this meagre supply, in aid of one of the noblest objects that can 
engage the attention of freemen, the Colleges of Vermont would 
be unable, by at least a hundred men, at present to supply — at so 
low an ebb stands the cause of liberal Education in our community! 

But in addition to the three thousand teachers for our youth, 
we have said there are other classes which the People find it for 
their convenience to employ to supply that Knowledge which, 
from the nature of their engagements, the mass of every com- 
munity will continue to lack. We have then connected with the 
Bar of Vermont some 400 ; with the Pulpit say 600 j and in tha 



12 

Medical profession 550. These Professions may indeed, at present, 
be overburdened with numbers; but the Professions themselves 
cannot be dispensed with, and, indeed, any considerable reduction 
oC either would probably create an immediate demand. The men 
of these Professions are intimately connected with the most im- 
portant interests of individuals and of society. They are con- 
cerned in the administration of Public Law, and in defending our 
rights as citizens ; to them we commit our bodies to be healed ; 
we seek their aid in the salvation of our souls. And who is so 
insane as to think, that their qualifications are of no consequence; 
or that community would not be the better served in proportion 
aa the standard of qualifications among them was raised ! Aside, 
then, from the small army of teachers for the youth, the People 
of Vermont ask for, or at least, tolerate in their service and pay, 
some sixteen hundred men, to aid in their legislation and minister 
in their courts of Law ; to superintend the Press and supply them 
with the weekly intelligence ; to heal their bodies, and take the 
care of their souls — concerns, truly, of the highest magnitude 
connected with time or eternity 1 Now these Professions all find 
their natural source in the Higher Institutions of Learning; from 
these fountains must they all be fed, and the continual waste, to 
which they are liable, supplied. In this remark, however, we 
mean no more than to lay down a maxim which is subject, of 
course, to exceptions. We intend no disparagement to the high 
credit due to those, who, in each of the Professions, nay, in every 
department of scientific and literary enterprise, have wrought out 
for themselves a fair reputation and attained to much usefulness, 
without the aid of a collegiate course : although, in truth perhaps, 
even these cases can be regarded only as instances of the collateral 
or reflected influence of colleges,inawakeninga general spirit of in- 
tellectual improvement, and diffusing the means of its gratification. 
As a general remark, these Professions,in the absence of which the 
' People perish for lack of Knowledge,' can have no respectable 
existence without the support of Literary Institutions. The 
Healing Art, which now lays the whole circle of physical science 
under contribution, would contract its stores to the worthless nos- 
trums of empiricism. The votaries of Law would forget to seek 
its abiding foundations in the deep laid principles of humanity, 
society, and morality; and cease to fortify the rules of jurispru- 
dence with the learning of past times. Even the divine science 
of our Religion would deteriorate into the senseless mummery of 
priestcraft and superstitious rites. In no age, it is believed, has 
the spirit of learning been fostered but through the aid of learned 



13 

institutions ; and were this aid to be withdrawn, it is at least 
problematical, whether the vast stores of intellectual wealth now 
accumulated in books would not be as inaccessible to the men of 
no very distant generation, as the literature of the Black-Letter 
age is to the mass of readers of our own time. Who, then, that 
considers the extensive demand in our community for the services 
of those that can 'teach the People Knowledge' — the numerous 
corps required for educational purposes and to supply the liberal 
Professions j can fail to appreciate the importance of our Literary 
to all the institutions, and to all the interests of society. What 
mind, that is thoughtful of the welfare of his State at home, or 
jealous for her reputation and usefulness abroad, does not grow 
sad at the intelligence, that the present aggregate number of 
students in our Colleges hardly exceeds two hundred : that the 
Institutions are languishing in poverty and neglect, and giving 
forth no equivocal omens, that, without a speedy return of the 
public favor to them, their springs will dry up — their light be 
extinguished! 

To the disparagement of Colleges and with a view to awaken 
popular prejudice against them, it is often asserted, we are aware, 
that these institutions are the public nurseries of an aristocracy ; 
that they serve to foster invidious distinctions in society ; that 
their influence is hostile to general improvement; and calculated 
to inspire contempt for the importance and interests of the mass 
of the People. But these charges, unless our own observation 
misleads us, are without foundation, especially, in regard to the 
literary institutions of this country : indeed the falsity of them 
will be obvious to every one from a single consideration. The 
majority of the youth, it is well known, who resort to these insti- 
tutions, are from a class in society the least distinguished for 
wealth or patronage. Here they find the means of distinction 
and usefulness, which their poverty and want of influential friends 
denied them. They enter on a scene of competition where rank 
is alone determined by the talents which God has given and the 
achievements of one's own industry. So that our Colleges in- 
stead of creating invidious distinctions, only furnish the means of 
overcoming such distinctions, by enabling the youth, who is desti- 
tute of wealth or powerful friends, successfully to compete with 
those who are supplied with both. In the true sense of the word 
they are leveling institutions ; but they seek to equalize, however, 
not by bringing one class down, but by raising another up. — 
Thousands of the present day in our country, have, by this means, 
been enabled to surmount the barriers which, otherwise, would 



14 

have hemmed them m for life, and rise to the highest respectability 
and usefulness. We do not hesitate, then, to affirm, that of all 
the civil institutions of the land, there is not one that emhodies a 
more decidedly Democratic element, than do our Colleges; not 
one that is less tolerant of the factitious distinctions in society — 
not one that serves more effectively to keep the paths to honor 
and usefulness open and free to all, or that offers to the minds of 
ingenuous youth of all classes more healthful or powerful incen- 
tives to enterprise and industry. 

Moreover, unless the records of all history are treacherous, the 
allegations we have cited are unfounded in truth. Literary 
institutions may be safely judged of by their fruits — the spirit 
which they foster may be known by the men they have nurtured 
and sent forth into all the walks of life. And if there has been, 
in all ages, a class of men distinguished for their opposition to 
the arrogance and tyranny of those in power ; assertors of the 
common liberties of mankind, and zealous laborers in the cause 
of general improvement and happiness — it is the learned class ; 
men ivho have been nourished in the highestLiterary institutions 
of their age, and at the deepest fountains of Knowledge. Origi- 
nating themselves, for the most part, among the common People, 
they have continued to cherish a sympathy with their sufferings 
and wrongs ; and sought to lessen, where they could not extin- 
guish them. Occupying a position midway between the highest 
and the lowest ranks of society, their influence has been steadily 
exerted to draw the extremes nearer together, by depressing on 
the one hand while they elevated on the other. The individual 
exceptions that may be cited, will not affect the truth of the 
general statement. From the first dawn of civilization to the 
present day, it is hardly possible to fix on one great movement in 
favor of human rights and the improvement, of the condition of 
the People at large, but what originated in and was guided for- 
ward by men of learning ; and not ^infrequently in opposition t® 
the People themselves. By their hands the thrones of despots 
have been overthrown, and the pride of an arrogant nobility re- 
strained. Nay, the last struggle for the expiring liberties of the 
People, has been sustained by men nurtured among books and in 
Academic Halls. From the lips, not of the People or their dem- 
agogues, but of their most accomplished Statesmen and Orators, 
were the last shouts for liberty heard in the Athenian Assembly. 
ft was the Roman Patriciate— a class, which to their princely 
wealth united an uncommon devotion to liberal studies, and which 



15 

was adorned by a splendor of mind and scholarship unsurpassed 
in any age — who put to hazard their fortunes and lives in a 
fruitless attempt to prevent the People from surrendering their 
liberties to a despot. In the great conflict for popular rights in 
the Seventeenth century — a conflict waged not only through the 
Press, and in the Pulpit, and on the floor of the House of Com- 
mons ; but in the tower of London, in all the dungeons and on all 
the gibbets of England ; in the court of the King's Bench, in the 
Star Chamber, and the High-Commission court; and, finally, in 
fields of civil carnage in every part of the kingdom — we recognize 
as its Leaders and Champions, the Students and prime Scholars 
of the English Universities. Nay, it is noticeable, that so long 
as men were guided by the promptings of their own minds, un- 
tampered with by the flatteries and promises of a heartless 
monarch, there was scarcely a Scholar of note in the House of 
Commons, that did not espouse the cause of the People. The 
Petition of Right came from the hand of Coke; and Wentworth, 
and Hyde, and Falkland, stood, shoulder to shoulder, with Hamp- 
den, and Pym. and St. John, and Hollis, and Vane, in demanding 
liberty for the People of England. And in the breasts of our 
own countrymen, the Adamses and Hancocks, the Otises, the 
Quincys, and Warrens, of revolutionary fame, a zeal in the cause 
of human rights was not extinguished within the Halls of a Col- 
lege ; otherwise, Washington himself might have grown dim with 
age,before an oppressed people had found occasion for his services. 
But the labors of this class have not been confined to the as- 
sertion of the common rights of man ; to them are we indebted 
for most that has been accomplished in elevating the general 
mind, and diffusing the spirit of improvement through society. — 
Even Common Schools, together with those of an intermediate 
rank, can be regarded in no other light than as off-shoots from 
Colleges. Such schools never did, and probably they never can. 
independently and spontaneously vegetate in any form of human 
society; they must be preceded by institutions of a higher order. 
This is a well ascertained law in regard to the rise and progress 
of all systems of education. The inception is with a few individual 
minds ; and the first public, developement is in founding a College; 
and the influence of a College— unless restrained by such powerful, 
adverse influences as have operated in many Catholic countries — 
ie, to leaven the whole community around with the spirit of learn- 
ing and improvement. The first dollar appropriated by Law in 
New England, for the purposes of education, was to endow a 



College ; and the next step, in order, was to create by Law her 
noble system of Common-Schools : a system, which, for a period 
of two hundred years, like the springs of our mountains, has been 
diffusing health and freshness over the whole aspect of society. 
Meanwhile, on our northern Border, an elder race and from a 
goodly stock has barely vegetated in the twilight of that sun which 
has illuminated our soil. The influence of no College has perva- 
ded society, and hence the People have been without schools : 
and to the absence of schools among ihem, may we well ascribe 
the fact, which stands reported — That on a certain Petition of the 
French Catholics, to the Imperial Parliament— embracing not only 
the common People but also the entire class of educated and pro- 
fessional men — seventy-eight thousand signatures, out of eighty- 
seven thousand, were made by proxy. A like obscurity and from 
a similar cause, overshadows the region on our southern Border. 
With a Priesthood enriched with a hundred millions of endow- 
ment, Mexico has no College for the People, and consequently, 
the People have no system of Schools for their children. 

But enough, I trust, has been said to effect the main object of 
this discussion — viz. — to set forth the true source, from which a 
system of sound, popular instruction is to be derived ; the harmony 
that subsists between the Common and the Higher Institutious of 
Learning — the dependence of the former on the latter not only 
for their inception, but for their perpetuity and success; and, 
hence, the ruinous policy of suffering our Colleges to be deserted 
through lack of patronage, or to languish through inadequate 
pecuniary support. I hold it as a well established maxim, that 
with the decline and fall of these higher seats of learning, are 
connected the decline and fall of every other system bj' which 
the People are to be taught Knowledge. I maintain that the 
honor, as well as the interest, of our State demands, Jirst, that 
our Colleges, which have already given us a respectable name 
abroad, be placed on a more liberal foundation in regard to funds; 
and, secondly, that the number of our young men to be educated 
in their Halls, be increased threefold. I have yet to learn by what 
method Vermont can better serve her generation, the world over, 
than by multiplying her number of educated men. Nowhere, 
under the broad firmament, do we find better materials for a 
master's skill, choicer samples of sound, patient, and enterprising 
mind : No where can education be obtained, of a more practical 
type, at more reasonable charges, or under social and moral in- 
fluences, more safe and auspicious. 



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